Report: South Korea deploys more long-range artillery on border island

Report: South Korea deploys more long-range artillery on border island

edition.cnn.com

Seoul, South Korea (CNN) -- South Korea has reportedly deployed more long-range artillery and rocket launchers on Yeonpyeong Island, a border island struck by a North Korean shelling last week, according to military officials.

The officials' remarks were reported Monday by the Yonhap news agency in Seoul.

The report comes as joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States continue in the Yellow Sea and tensions with North Korea continue to brew.

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No sign of relief in tense situation. Day beginning with Presidents tough adress to nation, ending to troop movements towards borders. Where is the line, that NK will think war is imminent and start their counter measures?

I think we are in very thin edge - one soldier commander can have a nerve breakdown under lots of pressure - I think for week now there hasnt been so much sleepping, but constant planning and collection of information.

More days goes by, greater is the threat for huge miss understandings and after week without sleep and under a great stress - commander can fail, even politicians could keep their minds and poker... War is a terrible and very possible outcome from this crisis.

Any moment breaking news can reach us all.

edition.cnn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by JanusFIN


I think they were initially planning on using that new artillery in a training drill but now they aren't:

"SEOUL, Nov. 29 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's military said Monday it won't hold an artillery firing drill Tuesday on a border island devastated by a North Korean attack last week.

Residents on the island had been told to move to bomb shelters before the drill, but officials at the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the military delayed the drill."

english.yonhapnews.co.kr...

So I have been thinking... Is the military drills currently being held by the U.S. and South Korea really just a pretense to position assets for a preemptive strike on NK. If you think about it, the best chance South Korea has to come out of any altercation with the North relatively in tact is to stage a massive preemptive strike on the North taking out the majority of their offensive capability. I look for this to go like the Iraq war. We will have a special press conference by the president stating that "At approximately such and such a time our military has started operations inside North Korea." Cut to scenes of shock and awe inside Pyongyang.

Originally posted by wisintel
So I have been thinking... Is the military drills currently being held by the U.S. and South Korea really just a pretense to position assets for a preemptive strike on NK. If you think about it, the best chance South Korea has to come out of any altercation with the North relatively in tact is to stage a massive preemptive strike on the North taking out the majority of their offensive capability. I look for this to go like the Iraq war. We will have a special press conference by the president stating that "At approximately such and such a time our military has started operations inside North Korea." Cut to scenes of shock and awe inside Pyongyang.

That's certainly a possibility. I thought there were literally thousands of NK artillery pieces pointed at the south though, especially towards Seoul. It would have to be a massively coordinated attack in order to take out the majority of those sites so they couldn't launch a counter-attack.

why cant south korea and the u.s move back to carry out these war games? they know they are riling NK and are only making the situation worse!

nothing is to be gained if it kicks off ..only more loss of life.

reply to post by peter_kandra


In military terms, facing off against NK would be what the USMC and other branches refer to as FUBAR or even SNAFU. I'm sure many are familiar with the acronym, but for those than aren't this simply means that the situation is ridiculous and extremely unfavorable with some colorful language interjected.

Trying to co-ordinate an attack against NK to hit all their artillery at once is... well practically impossible. It won't happen.

reply to post by W3RLIED2


plus i wouldnt put it past kim jong il to use nukes.....he is an evil, unscrupulous man, he will be wanting to set an example for his son ...just have to wait and see

The most telling sign that's things are about to get ugly is... what kind of moves and activity is going down on Japan. If its business as usual, then America does not believe this is going to go viral. South Korea will put a smack down if NK attacks with a paint or airsoft gun, and rightfully so. I don't think NK wants anything more then to make the world "believe", they could, which they believe will give NK the bargaining power they've lost from crying the same wolf for twenty plus years.... ratcheting thing up to this level could accomplish what fake nuclear explosions could not. I thought last time they would push the issue, I was wrong... perhaps I'll be wrong this time as well.

--Charles Marcello

I second that SKorea/U.S. should move back to carry out these 'drills'. Remaining there is only showing that the West/SKorea are fanning the flames of the already tense conflict.

I was on RussiaToday and noticed a quote from Georgy Toloraya, director of Korean Studies at the Institute of Economics at the Russian Academy of Science, stating:

Georgy Toloraya said. “Of course, nobody is really wishing to have a full-scale world conflict – but what if the [South] Korean ship or the American ship hit an underwater mine, and the South Korean-American side decide that this is a North Korean attack?”

RussiaToday

The longer that we're in that area, it only increases the odds that some 'incident' may occur.

Originally posted by W3RLIED2
reply to post by peter_kandra

 

In military terms, facing off against NK would be what the USMC and other branches refer to as FUBAR or even SNAFU. I'm sure many are familiar with the acronym, but for those than aren't this simply means that the situation is ridiculous and extremely unfavorable with some colorful language interjected.

Trying to co-ordinate an attack against NK to hit all their artillery at once is... well practically impossible. It won't happen.

Agreed. Does anyone the scale of our attack on Iraq as far as the initial strike? Whatever that was would pale in comparison to what this would require.

reply to post by wisintel


Intresting thought. S. Korea by the way has canceled the artillery live fire drills on the disputed island.

Its entirely possible for a premptive strike. When N. Korea shelled the island South Korea went on record stating the actions violated the cease fire. Retaliating against the North could technically be allowed under the UN resolutions.

I noticed that the whole blowup with N. Korean coincided nicely with the wikileak release. Once again 2 major issues pop up at the same time.

reply to post by wisintel


The drills have been going on for years - over twice as long as I've been alive.

It's nothing new, and North Korea rattling a saber over the drills is nothing new, either. The difference, here, is that young little kimmy is trying to solidify his power as the up-and-coming leader. He's young, just a few years older than me, and only surpasses me in his ability to think too much of himself. His actions are not well thought out and very irrational.

Turning back the history clock, we see when the present leader (Kim Jong il) inherit control of the country from his father in his twilight years. It was always his father's dream to see Korea united again, and the young Kimmy pushed pretty hard, right up to the brink of war - but was not confident that a victory could be had.

Fast forward, repeat of the scenario - Young Kimmy is, again, wanting to please daddy and grandpa before they pass. He's young, and been given more power than he has any clue what to do with. He has attended private schooling outside of North Korea, and has been exposed to the anti-american sentiment shared by every college campus the world over (even in America).

He likely believes that by manipulating these scheduled drills, the poor reporting skills of the mainstream will give the outside world the impression that America and South Korea are, indeed, antagonizing North Korea, and drop support for South Korea. It's no mistake that the artillery strike from North Korea occurred in the days just prior to this scheduled military drill.

The problem is that young Kimmy thinks too much of himself and forgot to factor in the market, like anyone brought up in an isolated communist society. Most people think Samsung or LG come from Japan, but this whole mess is starting to pique curiosity in a country that has never gotten much in the line of recognition. Nations realize this little country that the world forgot is one of the most important cornerstones of modern global society - no other country has the capacity to pick up slack from Korea, and wouldn't without many years of dedicated development. Even the U.S. couldn't pick up in the ship-building department without several years of focused effort to develop the infrastructure.

People are also dragging out the history books and starting to remember this 'forgotten' war as the people who fought it pass into the grave.

He's grossly overplaying his hand, and is probably rash enough to try an attack on South Korea.